Saturday, February 10, 1934 and the Daily Echo reported the calamitous events when Prince, a frisking, seven-year-old working horse, caused havoc in Southampton when he went runabout.

Prince who drew a bread van for the local Price Brothers Bakery, bolted twice in one day. He broke two carts, scattered 200 loaves, overturned a painter’s truck and a vegetable stall and smashed a shop window.

The horse thought about going on the run when he was left in Grove Road, Shirley, by the delivery man. Prince sped off down the road, across Shirley High Street and into Newlands Avenue, scattering people before him.

He was followed by the driver of a lorry but the horse did not stop until he had crashed into the painter’s truck and overturned the bread van.

After he had been caught and pacified, and hitched up to another van, he decided he had not finished running. This time stableman, Ernest Curtis was in the van when the horse plunged forward.

The Daily Echo said: “Mr Curtis jumped down and hung onto the reins in a gallant effort to stop the runaway but was pulled off his feet and swung across the road.

“Prince continued his mad career and as the van was swinging into Church Lane it caught the blind of Gange and Sons’ boot shop and smashed two panes of glass, and later a vegetable was knocked over by the horse.’’ He may have left a trail of damage behind him, but Prince did not suffer a scratch.